Full backup on Sims

[talksr]

Hi, can anyone tell me how I perform a full backup on SIMS?

 

I am new to the MIS and would like to perform a full backup before I touch any data.

[jinnantonnixx]

Do you already have a backup system? At the minimum, you should back up every day. If you don't have such a system, that should be your very first task.

[talksr]

Do you already have a backup system? At the minimum, you should back up every day. If you don't have such a system, that should be your very first task.

 

Yes, we have a tape drive which does daily backups, but I would like to do a manual one each week.

[jinnantonnixx]

You'll have to describe your system. What software do you use to backup? If this allows you do run an ad-hoc backup, this is the preferred way.

[Dkeen94]

Just a quick note, when you say you are going to be "touching" data, what are you planning to do?

 

I wouldnt be experimenting with live data to just get used to SIMS

[matt40k]

dbattach is what your after. Phone your support team (normally LA or Capita) to get some notes.

[glen_j]

you can create backups within Sims too using system manager, always advisable before making any big changes.

[vikpaw]

+1 @jinnantonnixx

 

You need to check what backup system is in place, in case something automated is going in and generating backups of its own using a particular system: differential, incremental, full, copying off to another location, stopping services etc. You can't just interrupt the sequence. I experienced this the hard way, because Backup Exec was in there daily doing its usual routine of differentials, but there was also a local, daily full backup using system management or dbattach and this screwed up the tape backup sequence.

[jinnantonnixx]

Yes indeed, Vik.

If you use a log backup system (diffs or incremental), an ad-hoc backup by a different system will truncate the logs, breaking this chain and rendering your backups useless. Not an ideal situation. You can get around this with the COPY_ONLY flag on the backup which leaves the log markers untouched.

But the best advice is to study your existing backups and understand how they work before getting creative.

 

If you know that you have any kind of backup system in place, and for some reason you are forced to make an ad-hoc backup using SQL Manager, the only safe advice is to always use COPY_ONLY.

http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1075/copyonly-backups-with-sql-server/

Edited March 2, 2015 by jinnantonnixx